CELEBRATING TEN YEARS OF
SUCCESSFUL PRETENDING!
by Meredith Bean McMath
The Grande Finale of Run Rabbit Run's original adaptation, A MUSICAL LITTLE WOMEN - Music by Diane El-Shafey with Accompaniment by Carma Jones Denney and Book Adaptation by Meredith Bean McMath
Meredith Bean McMath
So... is it time to explain our name?
- In 1998, my friend Joni Lynn Crane and I began to create history documentaries and museum public programs. Accurate historic “pretending” was our game, and… well, we didn’t have a name.
- But while we were creating that first documentary, we heard a story from the Battle of Gettysburg. A group of Confedersate soldiers were hunched down along a ditch, waiting for the call to charge across the battlefield. Most knew this battle was the end of the line - for the war, and very possibly themselves. As they waited, tense and exhausted, a large hare ran swiftly along the line. Each man turned their heads as it ran past, and then everything grew silent... until an old man spoke up and quietly said: “Run, Hare, Run… If I were a hare I’d run, too".
- The story struck us profoundly, and we wanted to name our production company after the tale (the tail?). So, we were going to be Run Hare Run Productions, Inc.
- And right away people told us the name was was too hard to remember... or understand. So we compromised and came up with Run Rabbit Run Productions, Inc.
- And our first documentary was accepted by - and aired on - The History Channel, so… we knew we had a lucky rabbit.
- Then in 2010, I pulled a theatre company of the Rabbit's hat, my musical friends Diane El-Shafey and Carma Jones Denney joined me, and Run Rabbit Run suddenly meant “Energizer Bunny”.
- Our goal: create great entertainment in Loudoun County, Virginia and the DC / Metro area with veteran actors, new performers and technical crew who are:
1. Extremely talented and creative;
2. Will aim for professional-level theatre;
3. Know how to have fun doing all of the above. - Since 2010, we've averaged 2-3 productions a year of dinner theatre shows ranging from classics to modern works, original stage plays to original musicals and adaptions, plein-air Shakespeare to two Capital Fringe Festival productions, and offered youth to adult acting classes and programs through libraries, schools and museums.
Along the way, we've won awards, great reviews and full houses. In short, Run Rabbit Run Theatre has been successfully pretending since 2010.
And now...
— Diane, Carma and I are preparing scripts to offer Royalty Rights agreements for our two musicals, Once Upon A CHRISTMAS CAROL and A Musical LITTLE WOMEN, beginning summer 2022;
— I'm writing the comic murder mytery, THE DIE IS CAST, in preparation for a 2022 production in conjunction with another company.
So, see you at the show!
- Meredith Bean McMath, Managing Director
